THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
453 
hinders their advance very much, and struck me as incredibly unpractical. 
The movements are rather complicated, and devoid of that pliancy and 
lightness which are such prominent qualities of good infantry, and which 
are found to such an extent in our riflemen, and in the French light infantry, 
and are very properly admired. This arm in general gave the impression 
of great solidity, and of as great moral and physical courage and steadiness 
as is to be expected from the descendants of those troops who won such 
immortal fame in Spain, and who were considered by Napoleon and Marshal 
Bugeaud as the best in the world—-which, however, refers more to their 
actual fighting power than to movements. 
The English infantry were armed with the Snider rifle. The disadvantages 
of this rifle appear to be the extra motion entailed by drawing back an 
extractor used to disengage the old cartridge, and the recoil is very great. 
It has the appearance of our Wangel rifle, has a similar simple construction, 
only it is more clumsy and heavier. 
Land Transport Corps. 
The success or failure—yea, the very possibility of carrying out the under¬ 
taking at all, depended upon the organisation of the Land Transport Corps. 
Lord Napier, with a true military eye, foresaw the importance and diffi¬ 
culties of this department, and his most earnest attention was devoted to 
the organisation of this corps. 
Unfortunately, at the very commencement, he met with the greatest diffi¬ 
culties from the Bombay Government, which consisted of five members, 
amongst whom Lord Napier was the only military authority. His very 
proper demands met with no adequate consideration, but in the end his 
wishes had to be complied with. However, this was not done till the last 
moment, in the greatest hurry, and in consequence the arrangements were 
of necessity defective, which gave rise to many difficulties. 
The train had drivers of all nations, and the pack animals consisted of 
camels, mules, donkeys, horses, and bullocks. The camels and bullocks did 
not answer at all well. The pack-horses answered well; they carried nearly 
as much as the mules, and their mortality was less. It is impossible that 
horses, mules, oxen, and camels can march together without one delaying 
the other. I consider this the chief cause of the bad and straggling marches, 
and the unnecessary weariness of the troops. There were pack-saddles of 
every description—the Otago, M‘Mahon, Jacob, Hungarian, Punjaub, &c. 
The one which I consider the best, on the whole, is the Otago saddle, 
with a few modifications, only it is rather heavy and expensive. As the 
improvement of pack saddles and cavalry saddles is of special importance 
to the military profession, it would really be worth while to offer a prize for 
the best pack and the best cavalry saddles, which would probably be the 
means of making some forward step in this question. At the close of the 
expedition many of the beasts were sold, others shipped off to India, and 
some given as presents to the Prince of Tigre. 
So ended the Land Transport Corps, the raising of which had cost so 
much in trouble and money. Yet the sad experience it taught will not 
have been lost; for repeatedly have I heard the question mooted of giving 
this corps a permanent organisation for the Indian army, of which the cadres 
at least should be always maintained. 
